Obiter is saddened to hear of the demise of Solicitors Journal, the oldest (and for many years the only) publication aimed at our branch of the profession. The final edition appears tomorrow. From its first number in January 1857, the Journal took a broad view of legal interests, for instance running a series of articles on the peace talks between revolutionary Russia and the German Empire. ‘The arrival of  M. Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk on the renewal of negotiations appears to have changed their tone,’ the Journal noted astutely on 23 February 1918.

And Obiter feels a special affinity with the unknown editors who slaved to fill the weekly ‘In Lighter Vein’ column, typically with anecdotes about rural citizens in the dock for bigamy. Our favourite is the hoary tale of a corpulent KC who, on squeezing his bulk into the front row of the court, was asked by the judge: ‘Do you move?’

‘Not without difficulty, my Lord,’ came the reply.

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